


This Hell

by PompousPickle



Category: Borderlands
Genre: F/M, Krieg is bad at sleeping, Maya is bad at keeping her curiosity in check
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-29
Updated: 2015-08-29
Packaged: 2018-04-17 22:11:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,012
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4683215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PompousPickle/pseuds/PompousPickle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was so rare to see him asleep like this. Maya could hardly resist taking a loot at what was under that mask.</p>
            </blockquote>





	This Hell

Maya was up at the crack of dawn. She always was. A little something leftover from the Monks. Generally Zer0 was up as well, if he even bothered to sleep. They would do warm-up exercises, which generally consisted of yoga and sometimes gutting nearby bandits. It was a good start to any day. Only, Zer0 was nowhere to be found. 

Nothing too unusual, really. He liked to disappear for hours, sometimes days, only to come back and complain about how bored he was. Axton and Salvador were asleep near the fire pit, and would likely stay asleep until they smelled food or heard gunshot. Whichever came first. 

And then there was Gaige and the Psycho. Krieg. The wanted posters called him Krieg. And the name just sort of stuck. She was collapsed on top of him, absorbing his body heat as they both slept. She snored loudly and he twitched and mumbled constantly. Neither seemed to care. 

Maya watched for longer than she should have. She had never seen the man asleep before. He usually kept watch, or just wandered off in the night, howling and screaming about musical instruments made of teeth. But the Vault Hunters were never attacked at night. So the man did his job, she guessed.

"Get away from her," a guttural voice muttered from under the mask. Incessant and strong, he kept babbling. “Get away. Get away. I’ll slice your veins open if you touch her and the fountains of blood will never reach my baby girrrl.” His voice was nearly a hiss. Maya couldn’t help but notice the way the tone of his voice changed, as though he were a million people all at once.

A psycho. A killer. A Vault Hunter. A protector.

His arm was around Gaige as she clung to him. She liked the man. Didn’t mind the fact that he smelled like skag urine. Didn’t think it was creepy the way he drooled over Maya constantly. She trusted him. She was perhaps the only one who did. Even Maya had to admit, it was hard sometimes. When he spoke to the Vault Hunters at all, it was only to growl or hiss out things, or to berate them for helping him. But he never hurt them.

Maya noticed then that she was kneeling in front of the two, examining the man with the curiosity in which she approached everything. “So this is what Eridium does to a man,” she mumbled to herself, shaking her head. Sometimes it was hard to remember with all the killing and looting, but this is why she came to Pandora; to learn more about Eridium, more about herself.

And if Krieg and Eridium and Sirens and the Vault were all connected? Then maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea to keep him around.

“Kill me take me slice me open gut me pound me rip my lungs from my chesssst just don’t hurt my little one just don’t…” he mumbled again, his voice nearly rising to a shout before quieting down again. His entire body shook, his head banging frantically against the wall he was leaning on. It was a miracle Gaige didn’t get motion-sickness from all that.

The straps around the mask were loosened in his fitful rest. The more he rocked, the more the mask tilted off of his face. She didn’t want to intrude. After all, people wore masks for a reason.

But he never slept. He never was this peaceful. What kind of man was he? What does Eridium do to people like Krieg? This could be her only chance. Besides, a part of her just wanted to know what kind of face was attached to that body, as much as she denied it.

Tattoos glowing, she phased the mask to the side, just a little. Just to avoid having to actually touch the mask itself. It fell just a little further, just enough for her to take a good look at the basics of his features. Strong jawline, full lips, hardened cheekbones. There were marks and scars, but from what she could tell, none were too serious.

She couldn’t get a look at his right eye, to tell if it was covered for a reason or if Krieg was just being Krieg when he belted it over. But Maya found that she wanted to know. She wanted know more badly than she thought she did. She wanted to know what they did to the man. Who was he before the mask was on? What did he move like, talk like? Would she have liked him? Would he still have loved her?

Who was this girl he talked about in his sleep, thrashing around desperately, trying to save her from his nightmares?

“Oh no.” She heard a voice say from behind her, bogged down from sleeplessness. She turned to face Axton, rubbing his eyes and leaning over her shoulders. “He’s not bad-looking after all,” he concluded, reaching over and tipping the mask back onto the Psycho’s face. “Just couldn’t help yourself, huh?”

“Go do something useful or I’ll kill you with my brain.” Maya said to him, elbowing the man gently in the stomach and turning her attention back to Krieg. At the movement around him, the Psycho only moved his arm tighter around Gaige, as though protecting her, his limbs twitching in that way they always seemed to do.

“Alright alright. You don’t have to tell me twice,” Axton laughed a little, “You feel like roast Bullymong for breakfast? Because that’s literally all we have so that’s what you’re getting.”

Maya didn’t even bother with a response. She only stood up, sparing one last look at the man in front of her. She wanted to know more about him. She didn’t know if she could save him, didn’t even know if she wanted to. But she knew that somewhere, in there, there was a man worth discovering. And before she left Gaige and Krieg altogether, she could hear him mumble under his breath.

“Someday I’ll leave this hell, and you’ll be gone.”  


End file.
